Strip Malls Commercial Insurance

Posted on: April 10, 2013

A strip mall, also called a shopping center or shopping plaza, is a row of stores located side-by-side, most commonly in one-story buildings. They can be connected to each other similar to a row of offices, or have empty space between. In strip malls, there is generally a large parking lot in front of the stores and businesses. A variety of businesses are located in strip malls ranging from clothing and shoe stores to banks and hair salons. As the owner of a strip mall, you are in charge of all the tenants in the shopping center, therefore you have a great amount of responsibility for their safety. Insurance is essential for every building, including property insurance, liability insurance and signage insurance.

Types of Strip Malls Commercial Insurance

Commercial insurance for strip malls varies based on the expected risks. As the owner of a strip mall, you’re responsible for the following insurance policies in order to cover risks like equipment breakdown and property damage.

General liability insurance includes different policies under one main insurance policy. Premises liability, completed operations, and products liability are all components of general liability insurance. For example, if a customer of one of the shops gets injured in the parking lot or in front of the strip mall, it is still considered on your premises and you can be liable for the damages and legal costs. These costs will be covered by general liability insurance as part of the premises liability coverage.

Damage to your business property caused by rain, fire, extreme wind, earthquakes or other natural disasters, is something you can’t always predict. While you can’t prevent mother nature’s wrath, you are able to protect yourself and other businesses in the strip mall from it. By getting property insurance, the damages and loss of property is then covered by the business insurance policy.

In your strip mall, you are responsible for various types of equipment that services the building(s) such as heating and air conditioning limits, alarm systems, computers and monitors, and more. When these machines break down, it can cause business interruption and the loss of business income. Equipment breakdown insurance helps cover the costs of repairing the equipment along with help supplementing business income.

Business income coverage is a type of coverage that helps when your business is interrupted. If there was a natural disaster that caused damage to various shops in the strip mall, it can take a good deal of time for the repairs to be completed. Customers or clients of the different businesses aren’t able to get what they need, therefore the businesses are losing income and unable to pay rent. A Business income coverage provides you with protection against the loss of rental income.

Business insurance policies cover a large amount of unexpected events that can occur, but they all have a limit on the maximum dollar amount they will cover under a claim against you. Umbrella insurance is a great way to increase your liability limits for all of your risks under one policy. Umbrella insurance will protect your business for claims that exceed these policy limits of your standard liability policies.

Strip Malls Outdoor Sign Insurance

The signage in front of each shop or business office in the strip mall has the potential for getting damaged. This can be through vandalism, and attempt at theft, or from heavy winds, rain, snow or a natural disaster like an earthquake or tornado. If this was to occur, the sign is most likely not covered by other types of insurance. However, you can have a policy added to your property insurance that will cover outdoor signs that are owned by you, the strip mall owner.

These strip malls commercial insurance policies will go far in covering different risks you and your tenants are exposed to. You may not be able to prevent these events from occurring, but you can offer financial protection for when they do.